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Electrification - Your friend and foe

08-26-2004, 06:57 PM

The electrification strategy, a strategy consisting of mass electrification of your resource towers in order to keep them up and pumping nanosludge for as long as possible and to deny aliens res, is very popular on pubs. And why not? For 30 res, you can electrify a res node and it'll be protected with or without a marine. You can take your mind off your res node for most of the beginning and some of the early-mid game.

However its a double edged sword.

By the Numbers

A resource tower costs 15 res to put down. Now, its 4 seconds a tick for B4; 15 res * 4 second a tick / 60 seconds a minute = 1. Which means that 1 minute after that res node is built and starts pumping nanosludge, its paid itself off, and all the res afterwards until it is taken down is profit.

An electrified resource tower costs 45 (thats 15 res for the node itself, and 30 for electrification. We'll leave out the cost of the tfac for simplicity). 45 * 4 / 60 = 3. That means it takes 3 minutes for that res node to start making a profit. Thats 3 times that if you didn't electrify it.

Time Attack

Now, lets say you've got a res node at the Overlook on ns_veil at 1:30. Its an area that your marines will generally walk near or through, but you decide to electrify it anyways. By the time it pays itself off, it'll be around 4:30, which is around the average fade gestation time (which is around 4:00). Electrification is useless against fades, and the fade will be able to take it down in a jiffy. Chances are, if you let the fade kill it, it will either lose res, break even, or make very very little profit from that res node.

Then there is the fact that any electrified res node won't last long after the second hive goes up.

Res, oh res, where art thou?

The point of electrifying res nodes is to keep them. The point of keeping them is to get res from them. But really, when you electrify your res nodes, you're shooting yourself in the foot. It takes 30 res to electrify. 30 res is any upgrade, an upgraded armory, 3 shotguns, 3 packs of mines, or wait for 5 res for motion tracking. The fact is, that 30 res is ALOT. And while you might break even with your electrified res nodes before the fade takes them down, the 30 res isn't taken when you break even, it takes 30 res from your coffers straight when you click that electrification button. This stunts marine growth substantially. You simply can't fight back because you don't have the res, means, or upgrades to do so.

Those poor defenseless creatures

Those res nodes look a little naked without the sexy blue glow, huh? What do you do? That res node is going to go down if I don't electrify it!

You're forgetting the most important weapon in your arsenal: Your marines. They move, they shoot, they even give you smack from time to time, and get this: They're completely free. That res node under attack? Send a marine over there! More likely than not, they'll earn you 1 - 3 rfk free of charge. You can also defend it by other means. Most notibly mines. Its 1/3 the cost of electrification, and you earn alot more rfk from it. Think about it. You're going up to a res node and its not electrified. You think its safe, run up, boom.

Semi-Bonzai bases

Back in 2.01, a popular base to build were the "Bonzai bases". In 2.0, there were no building radius restrictions. And such, you could fit your whole base within 15 square meters with a tf in the middle effectively covering all of it when electrified. Although its not possible to do this anymore, electricity range has increased substantially, so this strategy is still viable and still being done. For base defence you just blew 40 res. This also effectively kills any attempt at marine tech growth. If you have to defend your base with something, then defend it with mines. 2 packs, 20 res, and they'll do just as well as electrification, if not better. Just remember to replenish them when they go boom.

Hypocrite

Now now, electrification isn't all that bad.

Electrification is a powerful tool, but it needs to be used in moderation. Does this mean that you shouldn't electrify res nodes? By all means no! Electrification is VERY useful for res nodes that are far away or is an area with high action levels such as hive rooms or chokepoints. Like, on ns_metal, you arn't going to electrify power banks (the res node at the very top) because its so close to marine start, however its not uncommon to see an electrified mineral processing node (the node in the middle). Mineral processing is a high traffic area. Its right next to 2 hives, and is a good chokepoint to hold. You can expect that node to go down alot if its not defended, so instead of letting it die and rebuilding it again and again, its more profitable to electrify it.

Electrification is also my hive defence of choice. For a hive room, you could stick a phase gate and res node together, plop down a tf, and put down two turrets (this setup has large blindspots, or spots where a skulk cannot be hurt at the turrets due to their angle of fire). Or you could just electrify the res node for the same price. (THIS IS IMPORTANT. Res nodes have more HP than tfs, so if you have a choice, its ALWAYS better to electrify res nodes).

Electrification can boost the chances of a seige to go successfully as well. Electrify that tf, and you'll have skulks making suicide runs on it in attempt to get it down. Not only do you get massive res for kills, but with a welder, the chances of that tf going down is very low.

The last word

Electrification is very very useful. With its large radius, you can cover alot of things. But its also very expensive, so you must use in moderation. The next time you're thinking of electrifying that res node, stop. Just stop. Click on the arms lab and get armor 2 instead. You'll thank yourself later.

Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Zephyr: Apophis is clearly a highly sophisticated self-aware AI construct that runs on a highly modified toaster oven in Wyzcrak's basement.

Comment

I never actually did the math with hive lockdown's, but that makes complete and total sense. Most games, you'll see a comm drop as much as 6 turrets at a hive.
6x10res - turret
15 res tf
15 res node
15 res pg
that's 105 res! (TF's may be 10, i can't remmeber)
but that's still stupid when you could do easily the same for less.
+ when a tf goes down, thoes turrets are easy pickin's for one skulk to just finish off. with elec, if the RT goes down, the PG went down first, and that takes a good 15-30 seconds!

Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Zephyr: Apophis is clearly a highly sophisticated self-aware AI construct that runs on a highly modified toaster oven in Wyzcrak's basement.

Comment

Electrification is useless against fades, and the fade will be able to take it down in a jiffy.

Let's guess that it takes a fade a minute and a half to take the node down. That's not approximate, but the fade is going to have to stop for adrenaline, probably, before the node dies.

That, in essence, is pulling the fade away from killing your marines for ATLEAST a minute. That's useful, I'd say.

Another thing that MANY marines and comm's don't concider is ambushing a fade on an electrified node. If the fade isn't two hive, then he can't heal himself and if he's soloing an electrified node, then he's going to be low. I've left nodes as a fade with 180ish HP and no armor. That's a SINGLE shotgun blast. If you ambush that fade, he's dead, but you have to surprise him and surround him.

Electrified nodes have a LOT of uses that we don't use. You just have to concider it from a different angle.

On the other hand, a skulk and a gorge can take out the node early on. It may take a minute, but it's better than occupying a fade on the node. This is the BEST way to counter electrification, and people don't use it quite enough.

-Mom

Yer Mom /O>

To all but me is the look given but never received. My heart sinks faster and faster every time I look into them, yet I do not understand their controling power on my soul. - W11114m W45h1n670n

Comment

I like it. It makes sense, and gives stratagey's to defeat fades. (not my MOST favorite opponent).

Natural Selection name: Fodderkill. Why Fodderkill? Well, its because im so easy to kill hahaha!
"Why don't Fades ever die?"
-Universal question almost all new players ask at some point, even if they n ever say it.

Forum name: Fat B Man
Ingame name: Fodderkill

Just call me Fodder on TS or whatever

Comment

Normallly, before the second hive, I drop tons of mines instead of using turrets or electrification as a safeguard. In some other servers though I prefer electrification instead of turrets or mines for 2 reasons:

- The problem with mines is that some newbies will either not realize that they've picked them up, will not place them at the appointed destination, or will put them on walls instead of around a pg -.-
- Turrets, on the other hand, are effective, but require good placement. The biggest problem with dropping them is that sometimes the pubbers that are building don't watch/hear aliens coming or can't aim. So, you pretty much wasted 50+ res on a hive lockdown :\

[negative]

Comment

- The problem with mines is that some newbies will either not realize that they've picked them up, will not place them at the appointed destination, or will put them on walls instead of around a pg -.-
- Turrets, on the other hand, are effective, but require good placement. The biggest problem with dropping them is that sometimes the pubbers that are building don't watch/hear aliens coming or can't aim. So, you pretty much wasted 50+ res on a hive lockdown :\

I've honestly never worried about either of these points on TG. Every time I drop a pack of mines, I say where it's supposed to go. If I don't say, the person who picked them up always asks or just puts them on the newest phase gate.

I've gotten into the habit recently of pinging whenever somebody's building. As those first two or so turrets go up, they'll be able to see on their minimap if anybody is coming. Also, on the rare occasion that I do use turrets, there's at least 2 or 3 people there building them around a phase gate, so losing one marine doesn't mean losing the entire turret farm.

Comment

Another pretty good strategy to defend rts that is widely overlooked is to give your marines a pack of mines. One mine placed at the base of an rt normally is not seen before the skulk steps on it. If you are smart about your placement (skulks are very predictable as to where they will be biting on it) you can get some more res and make them go boom.